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Post by gato on Mar 9, 2021 7:45:31 GMT -5
Were you hurting for money in your younger days, even with a good job? I know I was. When I joined my LEO department in 1970, I was paid the princely sum of $841 a month (before taxes) and thought I was in Fat City.
But then began "the whittling". Forced pension contributions took the largest chunk, followed by the cost of a medical plan. (We were required to have health insurance). Then, after a divorce, came child support payments and increased medical because whenever the ex decided to take my son to a doctor outside the plan, I footed the bill for that as well.
Back then, being in debt was frowned upon by the department, because that theoretically left the member vulnerable to bribes. So I scrambled to pay rent and feed myself. My personal clothes were shabby, but my uniforms had to be immaculate, so cleaning and tailoring were always a drain.
Having a second job was prohibited, so I grabbed whatever overtime shifts I could get. I took shortcuts with the DIY vehicle maintenance on my 1966 bug (still in my garage today). I bought used tires. I used various nostrums to extend the life of the battery (and push started quite a bit or parked on a hill.). Come time to do the brakes, I would swap the brake shoes, putting the bottom ones on top, since the tops bore the brunt of the wear. I cleaned and reused spark plugs that were past their "change by" mileage. Rings and valves? Maybe later. I put questionable fan belts back into rotation. Rust starting to show through the paint? Hey, that's why the hardware store has that cool primer gray in a can.
I learned how to fix a lot of stuff at my rented house, instead of bugging the landlord, who would have raised my rent, if he had to foot the bill. So water heater, garbage disposal, plugged sinks, rebuilding toilet innards, garage door springs, tree trimming, room painting, carpet cleaning, you name it.
I think my only luxury during the lean years, was keeping new strings on my Takamine 12 string.
How about you in your lean days of yesteryear?
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Post by Mfitz804 on Mar 9, 2021 8:00:16 GMT -5
I recall one period of time where money was so tight I didn’t eat at home for 3 weeks. We happened to be on trial, which meant I was at work a lot and during those times, the boss always footed the bill. We would be in Court all day, so we’d usually find a place that we could eat but that would also let us sit for however long our lunch break was (depending on witness availability, sometimes it was 3 hours) so we could work.
That particular trial, it was a Morton’s steakhouse. Started out with a burger, but I followed the boss’s lead. “Get a steak. Why get a burger when you can get a steak?”. Ok.
We were eating the largest lunches of my entire life, and often getting comp appetizers or desserts because we were there every day for 3 weeks straight. I coasted through to the next day without dinner most nights. Some nights we went back to the office to work, and the boss would pick up the dinner bill also.
Definitely saved on the grocery bill. My daughter and wife, of course, remained well fed throughout. My daughter ate normally, my wife ate whatever was in the freezer with fresh vegetables and other necessaries purchases and sprinkled in.
If I recall, it was immediately after doing our tax return and owing about $6,000 that put us in the hole. We battled back, 3 lean weeks and things started to normalize, back to regular in about 6 weeks.
We have both been fortunate to be gainfully employed for our entire marriage, including the last year. I cracked jokes about not getting stimulus checks, but frankly, I’m just glad we didn’t need them.
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Buster
Wholenote
Posts: 213
Formerly Known As: Buster Strings
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Post by Buster on Mar 9, 2021 8:23:17 GMT -5
I drove older cars that I bought with cash, freelanced and did whatever small jobs I could for my neighbors to earn a few extra bucks. I adjusted my income tax withholding from my day job so I could get about a $1,000 refund each year, which I threw it against the principal of my student loans.
I slept on the floor for six months while working my first job out of college until I could afford a used mattress and box springs. All car repairs and maintenance were done by me. I bought and sold whatever would bring in an extra buck.
I furnished my apartments with yard sale finds and occasionally refinished them to nice pieces, some of which I still have today. I would take on temporary roommates and used the extra money to pay down debt.
I borrowed the down payment on my first house from my folks (interest free -- thank you Mom and Dad) and did all of the remodeling myself. After getting students loans paid off, I kept the same routine to get my home paid off as soon as possible. I restored it by buying used and refinishing. Back in those days, you could purchase pretty much whatever you needed for pennies on the dollar by finding someone tearing down a house and making an offer on what you needed, and removing it yourself. (I once purchased all of the early 20th century wood molding I needed to finish out an enclosed porch addition, which matched the home's existing molding, for $10. Decorative door and window trim, baseboard etc.)
Now that I think about it, except for sleeping on the floor, I still do/would do many of those things even though I no longer have to.
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Post by tahitijack on Mar 9, 2021 11:26:10 GMT -5
Lowest point in my life was Christmas 1974, when I spent the holidays in a laundromat. I was breaking up with my ex and had secured an apartment starting January 1st, but she was getting more hostile by the day an finally around the middle of December said when I come home tonight I want you out of here.
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Post by Taildragger on Mar 9, 2021 12:33:16 GMT -5
Ouch, tahitijack.
Me? Around 1968: pine-board-and-cinder-block book shelves, a second-hand armchair, dresser and "roll-waway" bed, no car (hitch-hiking when I needed to get anyplace), living in a mother-in-law apartment over the landlord's garage.
Worked at a car wash for 2 or 3 months. I'll tell you, that 1976 movie "Carwash" starring Ivan Dixon, Bill Duke, the Pointer Sisters, George Carlin and Richard Pryor wasn't much of an exaggeration. There were some real characters at the one I worked at, mostly guys straight out of the Oakland ghetto. One was a ringer for Muddy Waters: covered up his meticulously coifed Conq with a hairnet and a do rag while working and drove a 10-year-old Cadillac. He had the top job short of assistant manager: the Pressure Washer.
Everybody obeyed Charlie, the assistant manager's orders on the clock, but come lunch time, we'ed all pile into his '66 Impala and cruise for half an hour, passing around a half-pint of whatever and ragging on Charlie to his face without mercy. Then it was back on the clock and Charlie was "boss" again.
There was even a slutty cashier, like in the movie.
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Post by roly on Mar 9, 2021 15:21:12 GMT -5
I'm still there.
I'm so used to being broke that it's normal.
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Post by Mfitz804 on Mar 9, 2021 16:06:46 GMT -5
There was even a slutty cashier, like in the movie. Pretty sure they were a requirement in any kind of retail, even as late as the 90’s when I was working in retail. |
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Post by gato on Mar 10, 2021 6:43:14 GMT -5
Just for the record, I was never a slutty cashier. In case you were wondering.
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Post by Mfitz804 on Mar 10, 2021 11:48:54 GMT -5
Just for the record, I was never a slutty cashier. In case you were wondering. Is that only because you were never a cashier? |
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Post by gato on Mar 10, 2021 12:17:54 GMT -5
Actually, I was a cashier for a while on Long Island (after school job when I was a senior)
I got beefed more than once because my skirt was too short, but because of my hairy legs I never made the rank of "slutty."
Being part time and non-union, some of my shift involved rounding up the shopping carts out in the parking lot.
When the manager noticed that attendance at his store went DOWN whenever the wind blew my skirt UP, he made my friends cop out that the whole skirt thing had been a prank, and I began wearing pants. That was a relief, let me tell you, what with the New York winter coming on!
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tmc
Wholenote
Posts: 907
Formerly Known As: tmc
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Post by tmc on Mar 10, 2021 21:53:25 GMT -5
Back in the lean years I worked at an aluminum can recycling center. We fed the cans (most of which were filled with vomit, marsh mud, and Chickenroaches) into a machine that flattened then injected them into a container trailer. I had the good fortune of finding a silver bracelet stuck on the bottom of an Old English 800 can which I proudly recovered and presented to my girlfriend. We've been married for 35 years now.
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Post by Ragtop on Mar 11, 2021 5:40:04 GMT -5
I was poor as a church mouse my sophomore year in college. Ate a lot of Kraft spaghetti (11 cents, tomato paste 15 cents), peanut butter, and apples. Then I got a job waiting tables in a nice restaurant, where I could eat for cheap (free, even, after I got to know the cooks). Continued in the restaurant biz as a manager after college (English degree, what else could I do?), starting at the princely sum of $775/mo. I moved up quickly from assistant to manager to regional manager. The best part was that it was a higher-end pizza place in Kansas City and I could eat for free. Saved thousands on groceries, and the food was really good; I still miss it 40 years later. Don't miss the 70 hour weeks with Monday off, though.
Scraped together enough cash to buy my first decent car, a slightly used '77 BMW 320i. Drove that car for 11 years, eight with no car payment. I was the king of Kansas City! Well, except for George Brett....
It was a good time in my life. I learned how to work. And live cheap!
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